


Drown

by AngelicSentinel



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Gen, MerMay, Merpeople, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2018-12-01 22:43:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11496282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelicSentinel/pseuds/AngelicSentinel
Summary: The Sonoko and Kaito mer AU brofic no one asked for but you're getting anyway.





	1. el hijo del mar

 

Sonoko can’t breathe.

The world…it’s turning dark.

She sees the light up ahead as she sinks deeper and deeper into the ocean. She can’t see straight. She can’t think. Her head is throbbing in desperate pain; the same rock that knocked her off the boat is going to kill her and isn’t that just the funniest thing?

She knows she needs to swim, to move, to make her way towards the light, but she just _can’t_.  Her arms won’t move. She closes her eyes, resigns herself to her fate. Her lungs are burning and trying to swim just makes it worse, so she stops and sinks farther and farther down into the depths, the abyss, there’s no bottom, why?

Her mouth opens and she breaths in water and the more she tries to cough the more water that pours in and she’s dying and can’t get up to the sky and it’s so blue but it’s not for her, not anymore.

Before she closes her eyes, there’s a shadow that floats across, blocking the sun.

The shadow of death.

It looks like a big fish, covered in seaweed, coming directly towards her.

She fights to stay awake, to _live,_ but it’s too much.

Sonoko gives up.

* * *

She wakes some time later, outside the Suzuki villa private beach, covered in sand. It’s itchy and uncomfortable and everywhere, and she sits up abruptly, making herself dizzy. She leans over and retches brackish water in the sand, moaning and holding her stomach.

Her feet are just above the high tide line. The surf is lapping at her toes. She’s still in her black string bikini, but she’s covered in kelp, and it feels like slimy fingers gripping her. She shudders, brushes them off as fast as she can. So gross.

Then Sonoko realizes that her mobile phone was on that boat, and her family’s villa doesn’t have a landline. There’s an ancient radio and a satellite phone for emergencies, but she may have, uh, accidentally tripped and broken the satellite phone? And who uses radio frequencies these days? (so Sonoko doesn’t know how to use it. So sue her. Also it probably has no range with the antenna broken. She hadn’t thought it was important.)

And her family owns the island, so the villa is the only sign of civilization on the whole island. The boat was the only way off it. And the supply boat only comes every other month; it’s what dropped her off yesterday.

And also the holiday may have been spontaneous? Not even Ran knows where she is, for all that Ran was supposed to go with her. That little boat was the only way back to the mainland; she didn’t want to use any of her water vehicles. She needed some time alone and that would have been a clear answer to where she was going.  Her family was under strict instructions not to contact her for at least a week, so it would take that long for them to notice she was missing. Probably even longer. She has enough food to last at least six months, plenty of water, but it’s the principle of the thing.

With the boat gone (also most of her clothes and her purse were on it) she’s stranded with no way off. And it’s her own fault.

Sonoko lets her head fall back into the sand, groaning. “This is NOT how I wanted to spend my vacation,” she complains. She rubs at her throat. The sound of singing has her perking back up. What?

She stands, her legs a little shaky, and walks towards the source of the voice.  It’s a man’s voice, calling out over the ocean waves. It’s not in Japanese. She can’t recognise the words, but it’s beautiful. Enchanting. Almost like a siren’s song. She feels drawn to it. But who is it? This is her family’s island. There’s not supposed to be anyone but her on here.

As she turns the round, heading for the side of the island with the cove on it, she sees him, sitting on a rock just a few meters out into the ocean proper. Bronzed skin. Strong, defined muscles. Long black hair flowing in the breeze. He’s naked from the waist up, legs covered only in sail cloth. He’s really hot. Like wow levels of hotness. But what’s he doing here? There’s a marbled seabird chittering at him, and he chitters back, like he’s talking to it, but he’s more than likely trying to get it comfortable with him.

She walks closer. It’s bizarre is what it is.  

Then he looks straight at her, almost as if he heard her coming, frown on his face. He crosses his arms. “Took you long enough.”

Sonoko is nonplussed. “What?”

“To wake up. I thought you really had died. That would have been a pain,” he lets out a sigh. “Especially after all the trouble I went through to rescue you.” He shifts, rolling over on his stomach. He has teal and turquoise beads woven into his hair, and there’s a big pearl tied into a particularly thick plait. His ears are hidden by his hair, but it’s odd. There’s some kind of pearly gossamer thing attached to both sides of his head. It looks almost like a veil, or fins, the thin see-through kind you’d see on a siamese fighting fish or certain types of koi. Such a strange fashion choice.

Then what he said registers. “Well, excuse me for nearly dying!” she says.  

“You’re excused,” he says. “So troublesome.” He’s resting his head on his hands. She notices then that his forearms are covered with the same thin thing, fanned out up to his elbows, the same glimmering, iridescent pearly sheen. It really does look like fins.

“What are you doing here?” she demands, ire raised.

He blinks. “I live here?” he says like it’s obvious.

“You can’t live here! It’s my family’s island,” Sonoko says, incensed.

“I don’t see your name on it,” he says in reply. “Besides, you own the land, not the sea.”

“It’s called trespassing!” she says shrilly.

“It’s caled being ungrateful,” the man says, sitting up again. He sticks his smallest finger in his ear, like he’s cleaning it out. Either the near-drowning experience and the sun has Sonoko hallucinating, or he has pointed ears.  “Ugh! If I had known you were this loud, I would have let you drown.”

That makes Sonoko pause. “How did you save me, anyway? I was out in the middle of the ocean.”

He laughs nervously. Then the seabird chitters again and dives at his head. He jerks back to avoid it and falls off the rock, slipping into the water with nary a splash.

He stays under the water for a long time. Longer than Sonoko thinks any human should be able to. She dives into the water, swimming out to the rock, but she can’t see him anywhere no matter how hard she searches. Five minutes turns into fifteen, and he still hasn’t popped his head out from under the water yet. She swims back to the beach. She’s about to head back to the villa, see if she can contact anyone, because as much of a jerk as that guy was, he did save her life, and at least they could find his body, when he pops back out of the water right in front of her.

She eeps, clutching at her heart, and he starts laughing at her. Angry, she splashes at him, but he splashes back, soaking her. She sputters, rubbing at her eyes, salt water having gotten in her mouth again.

When she opens her eyes, she finds all of her belongings from the boat piled up on the sand, including her mobile phone, as ruined as it is by the water now. “How did you..?”

He dips into the water, just a little bit, and then pushes himself out of the deeper water into the surf, smirking. He’s still in the shallows, but she can see a large dorsal fin and two smaller ones spanning half the length of his back, the same pearly color as his head and arm fins. Now that he’s out of the water, he has two wide fins at his hips, flaring out, and a caudal tail, curved like a crescent moon, splashing in the shallow water.

And his _scales_. Ostensibly white, they’re a rainbow of color in the bright light, like mother-of-pearl, that same iridescent pearly color. He glimmers. He’s fascinating to look at. Not only is his upper half gorgeous, he’s gorgeous in general. She should be gibbering, she’s got to be out of her mind, there’s no way mermaids exist, but here he is.

“You’re a mermaid,” she whispers.

He makes a stink face, gesturing to his upper body at the same time with one hand, which she realises has webs between the fingers. He pats his flat chest, the fins on his arms waving as his arms do. “Do I look like a _maid_ to you?”


	2. Something's Fishy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just scraped the tail end of mermay. I wanted to finish it ;-; but at least I managed an update!

“Yeah, you’re definitely _all_ man,” Sonoko says, mouth hanging open, still a little out of it.  

The merman _—_ _merman—_ lets out a startled laugh and beats his tail against the surf, splashing her again. She shrieks, holding her hands out in front of her face.

“Well, I don’t know about _all_ man,” he says. His nails are sharp, his fingers webbed, and his scales are a rainbow of brilliant white.  “About half, or thereabouts.”

His nails aren't the only thing made to cut. His teeth are longer and sharper than a human’s, though not as sharp as she expected them to be, considering the legends that—

“Are you going to eat me?” she demands, leaning over, hands on her hips. Her hair falls over in her face. She hadn’t realized she’d lost her headband; it feels strange to have her hair loose.

“Are you going to eat me?” he counters, “Considering your legends say eating our flesh gives you immortality?”

“No, ewww,” she says. “That would be like, cannibalism!”

“No, I’m pretty sure we’d have to be the same species for that to be considered cannibalism,” he says.

“You’re not helping!” Sonoko says.

“Hey, I saved your life, didn’t I?” he taps his temple. “Why would I eat you?”

“You might be saving me for later!”

“No thanks, I try to stick to a diet of lean protein,” he says, waving his hand dismissively.

Sonoko sputters. “Did you just call me fat?”

“Of course you’d focus on that instead of the implication that I, in fact, do eat people,” he says, rubbing his forehead.

“I have my priorities, unlike some people!” Sonoko says. “And besides, you still haven’t answered whether you do or not!”

“For your information, I don’t eat anything that talks. I’m not the one going around accusing someone of eating others just because I have legs instead of a tail. That’s discrimination, you know,” he tosses his hair over his shoulders, tucking some behind one pointed ear. “Land people,” he scoffs.

Sonoko eyes him consideringly, crossing her arms. “Why did you save my life?”

“Because you were drowning?” he says, looking at her like it should be obvious. And huh. Maybe it should be.

“Do you just go swimming around saving people?” she asks.

“I mean, it’d hardly be a secret if I did.”

“Then why me?”

He’s silent for a long moment. “You’re a Kaitou Kid fan, aren’t you? And pretty obvious about it, if I do say so myself,” he says. “The self-styled ‘number one fan.’”

Sonoko narrows her eyes. “How would someone like you know about Kaitou Kid?”

“Hasn’t everybody heard of him?” he asks, looking down his nose at her like she’s insane for even asking the question. “That style...that panache...that skill with sleight of hand~” he says, holding his hands together, his eyes sparkling. “You have to admit, he’s too cool.”

Sonoko stares at him, her mouth hanging open.

“What?” he says defensively.

“You’re weird,” she says. “I can’t believe there’s a merman fanboying over the Kaitou Kid.”

He opens his mouth to say something else, but Sonoko’s kind of had enough for today, and her legs give out, and she falls to the surf, sitting hard on her butt, landing in the water. _A merman._

“Hey, don’t undo my hard work,” he says, shifting with his upper body and flopping around like a seal until he’s sitting next to her. “You seem like the type who would drown in an inch of water.”

“Oh shut up,” Sonoko says.

He raises his webbed hands. “Hey, you’re the one who took a swan dive off a boat into a rock and hit your head. It looked intentional.”

“You were watching?” Sonoko says, cringing.

“Yeah. It’s uh, how I knew to rescue you. I was sunning on that rock just over there,” he points.

They sit in silence for a moment, listening to the surf, before Sonoko looks over and asks, “What’s your name? I’m Sonoko,” she says.

“I’m Kaito,” he says.

Huh. “Like ‘sea’ and ‘Dipper?’ Sonoko asks. “Or ‘sea’ and ‘soar?’”

Kaito hmms, which doesn’t really answer her question.

“Why did you save me?” Sonoko asks.

Kaito cuts her a flat look. “Do you think I’m the type of heartless person who could just let someone drown?”

“And why...why did you show yourself to me?”

He looks up to the sky, sighs. “Can’t you just be grateful that I did?”

“You’re right. I mean, ah,” she moves to her knees and bows deeply in the surf. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

“Hey!” he says, panicked. “There’s no need for all that, either. You keep that up, you really will drown in the surf! I’ve half a mind to move you out of harm’s way,” he says. “I’d do it if I had my legs!”

Sonoko takes one look at his panicked face and starts laughing.

“What? It's not funny!” he says, but that just makes her laugh harder.

He sort of sits there, looking hunched in and awkward as Sonoko finishes her laughing fit.

She takes pity on him though and says, “Wasn't really laughing at you.”

“Sure you weren't,” he mutters. “See if I help you out again.”

Sonoko has a million and a half questions she wants to ask, but she’s unsure where to begin. “So you live around here?”

“Yeah. Underwater. It’s close enough to Okinawa, but far enough away we don’t really get the pollution or heavy fishing. And uh, it was a Suzuki that set up the marine reserve around here,” he says, gesturing. “So thanks for that. Probably the only reason we aren’t mythical for real.”

Oh. “So that’s why you saved me,” she says. Her grandfather had a strong interest in conservation and preservation of things, even as he’d built up the _zaibatsu_ her great-grandfather started. He kept it strong after WWII up to the economic recession in the 90s, handing the reins over to her father shortly after. Her parents had kept the group growing well financially even now, but it was in large part thanks to her grandfather the company was even around to do it.

Kaito smiles, showing sharp teeth. “Well, not the only reason.” He pulls out a deck of playing cards. From where, she has no idea, seeing how he isn’t wearing anything but scales.

“Playing cards?” she asks. “And you have them underwater?”

He holds them out to her. She touches them. They’re plastic. “PVC. Waterproof. Not a huge fan for obvious reasons, but it has some pretty nifty uses,” he says. “I was actually practicing my card tricks,” he says.

“Card tricks?” Sonoko asks, tilting her head.

“Yeah. The reason I was out of the water. Sometimes water resistance can be such a drag.” He wiggles his eyebrows, and Sonoko lets out a snort at the terrible pun, covering her mouth and nose. “They’re easier to manipulate in the air. Guess it’s a good thing I have both gills and lungs.”

“Are you any good?” she asks.

“I’m the best!” he brags, performing a complicated card flourish just to prove it to her.

“Not bad! A merman cardist. Now I’ve seen everything,” Sonoko says.

“Cardist? Hardly! I’ll have you know I’m a merman _magician_ ,” Kaito says, turning his nose up at her. Then he gives her a wink, twirls his hand, and produces a little shellfish hair clasp out of nowhere, pinning Sonoko’s loose hair back behind her ear. She’s also wearing a little turquoise pendant. She hadn’t even felt him put that one on!

“That’s amazing!” she says, clapping her hands.

He does a sort of half-bow. “Thank you, thank you.”

“I’d like to say magic is a hobby,” Sonoko says, “but I’m really not very good at it. You’re amazing,” she says.

"But you know,” Kaito says, “if you’re not good at something, and you want to be, practice is the way to go!” He makes a small empty seashell disappear and reappear. “I’ve been practicing since I was young,” Kaito says. “My father taught me.”

“How does a merman like your dad get interested in magic?” Sonoko wonders.

Kaito doesn’t answer, looking away, and Sonoko gets it. It must be a touchy subject for him, and she resolves not to bring it up again. The mood turns somber, quiet.

Sonoko wants to break it. “Well, maybe I’ll practice one day and get as good as you!”

“Yeah, and maybe one day we’ll both be as good as Kaitou Kid, huh?” he asks, elbowing her in the side, leaping on her change of subject with speed.

“So maybe you really did save me because I’m a Kaitou Kid fan,” she says.

“Well, yes. I wasn’t lying, you know,” he says. “So what brings you to a deserted island?”

“It’s not deserted! It has all the modern conveniences,” Sonoko says.

He laughs at her, and she splashes at him with a wide grin, causing him to splash her back with his tail again. “I was on vacation. Now I’m starting to think I need a vacation from my vacation,” she says ruefully.

“I think I may have the solution for that,” he says.

“Oh?” Sonoko asks.

“Yes, but you have to promise to keep me and what I’m about to show you a secret.”

“Of course I will!” Sonoko says.

“I mean it. No talking about it on TV or anything.”

“Girl Code 101: always keep a friend’s secret,” Sonoko says solemnly. “There are some things you take to the grave.”

“A friend?” he asks, surprised.

“You saved my life. That’s like, instant friendship in my books.”

“Huh. You really mean it? I don’t want to end up dissected or anything.”

“Uh, yeah?” Sonoko says. “I won’t say a word.” As she says it, the pendant around her neck glows a bright white and then settles. Sonoko blinks, and then just chalks it up to the impossibility of _merman_.

“Huh. You do really mean it,” he says.

“Like, duh!” Sonoko says. “Now are you gonna show me this are not?”

 


	3. Under the Sea

“Say 'Ahh,’” Kaito says.

“What—ahhgh!” Sonoko gags as he forces something round and smooth into her open mouth. She inhales without realizing and whatever it is lodges in her throat, she's choking—

Did he save her life just to kill her? No, despite this, for some reason, she still trusts him. She falls to her knees, clutching at her throat—

And then suddenly her knees give out and she falls face down over into the water. She pushes herself back up. Her limbs are trembling.

“C’mon,” he says, “that only works for twenty-four hours on people like you.” He's braiding his hair in a loose twist. The big pearl he was wearing is missing.

“What? What's happening?” she says, lifting herself out of the surf. She's still got her full manicure with her nails painted to look like a beach, she's still wearing her string bikini top, but just under her navel, her body vees into scales, which continue to grow and spread as she looks. She has fins at her hips. A tail…!

She spreads her fingers and they're webbed. “This is too weird,” she breathes.

“Are you coming or not?” Kaito asks, grabbing her wrist just where the fin fans out, pinching it a little. It doesn't hurt but it feels really, really weird. He pulls at her.

Sonoko lets out a shaky, “Yeah.”  She resolves not to think about it.

With a powerful sweep of his tail, Kaito pushes himself into deeper water in one smooth movement.

Sonoko tries to copy him and ends up eating sand. Laughter from the shallows tells her that Kaito saw the whole thing. “Put your tail into it,” he calls out to her, grinning.

Sonoko shoots him a glare. She wiggles her hips, having a lot of trouble figuring out how to move. She ends up stretched out, rolling ungainly into the sea when that doesn't work. It's awkward because of her brand new dorsal fin digging into the wet sand. Sonoko thinks she should be freaking out, but she's not.

She rolls far enough into the water she manages to right herself. She brushes sand off her skin, pausing when it doesn't feel like it usually does. It's rougher, almost rubbery to the touch. Like a dolphin or shark or manta ray, though it still looks human.

Treading water like this is really unusual. She keeps wanting to kick out, but instead she has to spread out her fins and wriggle her tail a little bit.

Kind of like doing the Worm. Not that she ever did the Worm, she's not that old or out of touch. (Okay, she may have done the Worm. She’d gone through a dance obsession and had a crush on that one breakdancer that—well, that's not important)

The fins on her wrists move as she twitches her hands, and she can move the fins at her hips independently to stabilize. It's like having extra limbs So weird.

“Done figuring it out yet?” Kaito asks.

“How are you able to do this?” Sonoko turns to him.

“It's a long story,” Kaito says. “And I can't do it for just anybody. Wouldn't, actually, but you're less terrible than I thought you were, so.”

“Thanks for that,” Sonoko mutters.

“You're welcome,” he says, like he didn't pick up on the sarcasm. “But seriously, we should go, especially if you want to see the caves.”

“Caves? Where are you taking me?” Sonoko asks.

Kaito winks and grabs her hand again. “You'll see.”

“Wait—”

But he pulls her under the water, and keeps her there. Sonoko instinctively holds her breath, trying to get out of his grip, only for her neck to itch. She can't anymore, and bubbles come out of her mouth, and suddenly she's taking in a mouth full of water, but it doesn't hurt. It's like breathing heavy air.

“You brat!” she says, expecting more bubbles to come out, but instead it's just vibration, and perfectly understandable.

“Sorry,” Kaito says, not sounding sorry at all.

“You're infuriating,” Sonoko mutters.

“Thank you, I try,” he says.

“You could have just explained it all to me.”

“Where would be the fun in that? Besides, the expressions you make flailing around are kind of funny. Now follow me!”

It takes Sonoko a long minute to learn how to move her body the right way, but she's always been an excellent swimmer, and it's not so hard to wave her tail so she's moving through the water at a decent speed. They swim out past the rock that almost killed her on the far side of the island, and enter a wonderland.

As she looks around, it’s amazing. The water is so clear, here. Bright multilayered coral, a myriad of rainbow colored fish and...oh. An expanse of bleached coral, no life surrounding it. It's bone white.

She looks away, hand over her mouth stomach churning. She'd been taking the boat here to snorkel the reef when she’d hit her head, but the difference from last year is _staggering._

Kaito swims back, notices where she's looking, and nudges at her shoulder. “C'mon, they're not quite dead yet,” he says. “They’ll heal, if given time.”

She nods, and they swim on.

She follows him through a narrow ravine she’d never be able to brave on her own, even with scuba gear, only to jerk back in surprise as she and Kaito run into a dark-skinned merman with thick eyebrows. And a trident looped around his bare chest. His tail is a steely blue-grey, looking more like the tail of a shark than an ornamental fish, and unlike Kaito, his hair is shorn close to his head, waving in spikes. He’s also really buff, and Sonoko can feel her face heat up.

“Mako-chan!” Kaito yells, throwing his arms around him, giving him a tight hug.

‘Mako-chan’ barely even blinks, face still disapproving. “You slipped my guard again, Kaito-sama. The Princess isn’t happy.”

“P-Princess?” Sonoko asks. “Are you royalty or something?”

“Or something,” Kaito mutters.

The shark man’s eyes flicker to hers in surprise, and inexplicably, he looks down, eyes flickering back to Kaito a moment later. “You brought another human home, Kaito-sama?” the tone is disapproving.

‘Kaito-sama?’ Sonoko’s not so sure she believes him about the royalty thing.

“She’s a Suzuki, and I saved her life,” Kaito says imperiously, hands still on Mako’s shoulders. “I trust her.”

“A Suzuki?” Mako looks her over, and his gaze is unfathomable almost dismissive. For some reason, that kind of irritates Sonoko. Mako lets out a sigh and says, “Very well.” He turns his back to the both of them, swimming a meter or so away, and Kaito follows, gesturing for Sonoko to follow as well.

They swim through a bunch of rock formations, but to Sonoko’s eyes, they don't really look like what she was expecting. Not that she is sure of what she is expecting. It's very bland. The coral was more exciting.

“What is he, like your honor guard or something?” Sonoko asks, half-joking.

“Bodyguard, actually,” Kaito says, completely serious. “If she sent Makoto ahead, she’s probably not too happy with me right now, so we better go see her.”

“We?” Sonoko asks.

“Yeah, she’s going to want to meet you. I thought we could scrape by without having to do it, but Loudmouth-san over there,” he gestures to Makoto in front of them, who meets his disdainful look with a flat expression, “would tell her anyway, and then I’d be doubly in trouble, and that’s not how I want to spend my summer vacation.”

Summer vacation? Odd way to put that. It makes him sound almost...human. “Do merfolk have summer vacation?” Sonoko asks.

Kaito laughs, but it sounds a little sheepish. “Oh yeah, I summer with my grandmother,” he says, and swims through a forest of dense live seaweed.

Which isn’t quite an answer. It sounds like he's avoiding the question. Sonoko follows, grimacing at the feel of them grabbing at her, but once she gets past the thick curtain into the hollow at the end she sees what appears to be a field of gold.

“Wow,” she says. It's not all gold, but a small palace sits beyond the hole, surrounded by luminescent yellow creatures. It appears to be made of some kind of polished black stone, obsidian maybe, but painted brightly, as if one of the old surface palaces sank.

The outside is covered in coral and anemones and all sorts of creatures, and the massive doors are guarded by whoa, actual mermaids this time. Well, two mermaids and a merman, wearing some kind of scale armor over a kimono. It looks metal, though surely it would have rusted by now, right? And the cloth would have rotted away? But they look like they swam out of some kind of period piece, save for the tails.

Kaito and his friend? Bodyguard? Swim through the open door, and Sonoko follows. She feels like the guards are watching her suspiciously.

“I'm home, Gran!” Kaito says.

“In here!” a voice calls. They avoid what looks like a throne room with ornate columns and enter a small parlor.

It's decorated sparsely, but there's a woman with a shock of white hair sitting at some sort of giant clam shell table, playing...go? on a stone board, with a man-faced fish, whose scales are bright bronze and glimmering gold.

She says something to it—him—in a strange language, and it grumbles back in a deep rumble she can hardly hear.

She's in an elaborate kimono with interlocking waves, and for all Kaito calls her ‘Gran,’ she looks as young as they do. Her hair is done up, and her tail appears to have the same pearly iridescent sheen that Kaito does.

She turns, sees Sonoko, who shrinks back to hide behind Kaito a little (not that she'd ever admit that either.)

“Oh,” she says, rising in the water, swimming closer to Sonoko, “You look just like Taro,”  she breathes. “Kaito, where did you find this one?”

“They own that little island to the north of here, apparently,” Kaito says. “Saved her from drowning.”

“And brought her home. You’re always bringing human girls home,” she says with a chuckle.

Sonoko raises an eyebrow. Behind ‘Gran,’ the man-faced fish moves several black go stones with his fin.

“Not always! She’s only the second one, Gran! And Aoko was different!”

“Very different, I imagine,” she says. Kaito crosses his arms, glaring at her. “Your mother was the same way,” she says fondly, “Though if I recall, it was really only the one.”

Her eyes flicker over to Sonoko. “What’s your name, girl?” she asks.

“Suzuki Sonoko, ma’am,” She holds her hand in front of her, bowing at the waist. A little impolite, the honorific, but she’s not exactly sure what to call her.

“‘Suzuki?’ Then you _are_ Taro’s girl, aren’t you?”

“Granddaughter,” Sonoko says.

The woman considers her for a moment, nods and says, “Very well. You may come and go as you please.”

“Alright, thanks Gran!” Kaito says. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“I expect you home for dinner!” she calls as they swim out of the palace.

"Yeah, yeah," Kaito calls back. 

“The way you were talking about her, I was expecting a dragon lady!” Sonoko hisses.

“Well, you’re not entirely wrong,” Kaito says.

"And you really are royalty!" Sonoko says.

"Not....technically?" Kaito says. "I mean, yes, Gran rules the undersea kingdoms, but I'm not allowed to inherit. Technically," he says. "Not that it stops Gran from thinking I will."

"Oh."

"Believe me, I'm not too shaken up about it," Kaito says, dark look on his face. "C'mon, let's get to the caves."

 


End file.
